The present invention generally relates to a method for creating a gear assembly and more particularly, to a method for creating a Ravigneaux and/or compound type gear assembly which may be selectively and operatively deployed within a vehicle.
Gear assemblies are generally used in a wide variety of applications requiring the selective coupling or connection of several members and/or the selective coupling or transfer of energy to one or more members or assemblies. One type of gear assembly which is conventionally used within a vehicle to achieve this desired coupling and/or energy transfer is often referred to as a Ravigneaux and/or a compound type gear assembly.
Particularly, a Ravigneaux and/or compound type assembly includes several xe2x80x9cplanetaryxe2x80x9d type gears which are movably disposed within a housing and which are adapted to selectively and movably receive and interconnect to at least one xe2x80x9csunxe2x80x9d type gear and at least one ring type gear. Particularly, the sun gear and the planetary gears are coupled to various respective portions of the vehicle and this selective interconnection allows these various vehicular portions to be connected. Further, the received sun gear is typically and movably coupled to a source of torque or rotational energy and the foregoing arrangement allows the torque or rotational energy to be transferred from the sun gear to these other planetary gears. Alternatively, energy may be transferred to the sun gear from the planetary gears and/or to the various portions of the vehicle which are coupled to these planetary gears and/or to the sun gear.
While these Ravigneaux and/or compound type assemblies do allow energy or torque to be transferred to various portions of a vehicle, they suffer from some drawbacks. For example and without limitation, these assemblies are relatively difficult to manufacture since these assemblies require a relatively large number of components which must be intricately interconnected. Further, each of these components must be produced in accordance with respective and relatively precise tolerance limits or tolerance type bands. Should one or a few of these components xe2x80x9cviolatexe2x80x9d a respective tolerance requirement, the assembly may become inoperable or substantially incapable of being assembled.
Further, many of these assemblies inefficiently transfer the received energy due to relatively xe2x80x9cloosexe2x80x9d fitting components (i.e., gear receiving pinion support members).
That is, these pinion support members are typically placed into relatively small openings which are typically created within the formed assembly. Particularly, these openings are created by the use of relatively long instruments which, due to their relatively long length and the required small diameter, tend to form relatively inaccurate openings which allow the received pinion support members to undesirably move, thereby undesirably wasting energy, reducing overall operating life, causing an undesirably xe2x80x9cnoisyxe2x80x9d operation and further causing undesirable vibration.
While some attempts have been made to increase the accuracy of the produced openings by the use of alignment dowels, this approach undesirably increases the overall complexity of the manufacturing process.
Moreover, in most of these previously delineated configurations, the pinion support members are xe2x80x9cslip fittedxe2x80x9d into the assembly before they are operatively inserted into the created and relatively small openings, by use of relatively large openings. While these relatively large openings allow the pinion support members to be easily inserted into the assembly, they further allow the pinion support members to undesirably move and further allow energy to be wasted and the overall assembly operating life to be reduced.
There is therefore a need for a new and improved method for creating a Ravigneaux and/or compound type assembly which overcomes some or all of the previously delineated drawbacks of current Ravigneaux and/or compound type assemblies.
It is a first object of the present invention to provide a method for creating a Ravigneaux and/or compound type assembly which overcomes some or all of the previously delineated drawbacks of existing assemblies.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide a method for creating a Ravigneaux and/or compound type assembly which overcomes some or all of the previously delineated drawbacks of existing assemblies and which, by way of example and without limitation, efficiently transfers torque.
It is a third object of the present invention to provide a method for creating a Ravigneaux and/or compound type assembly which overcomes some or all of the previously delineated drawbacks of existing assemblies and which, by way of example and without limitation, may be efficiently manufactured and/or produced.
It is a fourth object of the present invention to provide a method for creating a relatively stiff Ravigneaux and/or compound type assembly which overcomes some or all of the previously delineated drawbacks of prior assemblies.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a method for creating a gear assembly is provided. The method includes the steps of forming a first member; forming a second member; placing pinion support members within the second member; placing a gear upon each of the pinion support members; placing the first member upon the second member; and coupling the second member to the first member.
These and other aspects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention and by reference to the following drawings.